Gibson's 'Light' A Cop Story Of 2005

August 15, 1993|By Reviewed by William Marden, Special To The Sentinel

William Gibson is at that unique intersection of literary trends, scientific advance, social evolution and pop culture where he stands poised to become one of the best-known and influential literary figures of his generation.

That is perhaps a strong statement to make of a relatively young author who made his name in science fiction - a genre still considered one step up from potboilers by some in the literary world - but Gibson is one of those rare writers who could have it all.

Like Ernest Hemingway, known to millions around the world who have never opened a book of any kind, Gibson is already known by many around the world who have never read a word in any science-fiction short story or novel.

Universally acknowledged by science-fiction readers and critics as one of - if not the most - important figures to arise in

the field in recent decades, Gibson has made ''cyberpunk'' - the multifaceted impact of computers on today's world and our future - his domain. And because computers are increasingly our world, his name is already known in spheres as far removed as advanced engineering and pop music.

Which is why even a relatively minor work like his new novel, Virtual Light, is certain to attract widespread attention within and without the SF field.

Actually, Virtual Light is minor only in comparison to Gibson's own seminal, groundbreaking works such as Neuromancer. At its heart, Virtual Light is the kind of cop novel that a Joseph Wambaugh would produce a generation hence.

Set in the California of 2005, it brings together private rent-a-cop Barry Rydell, formerly of the Knoxville P.D., and bicycle messenger Chevette Washington, who lives with her adopted father in the new squatter city that has grown up on and around the abandoned Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

The story revolves around Chevette's impulse theft of a pair of dark glasses that is actually a sophisticated computer. By use of the new ''virtual light'' technology, vast amounts of highly secret information can be conveyed into the brain of the person who wears the ''glasses.''

The powerful owners of the glasses will spare no expense to retrieve their property and its priceless information. Rydell is recruited to help find the glasses but turns out to be as much of a headache to his new employers as he was to his superiors in Knoxville.

Virtual Light has many of the key strengths of Gibson's work - a fascinating near-future environment, quirky characters and, most of all, a dense feel for what future life will be like. Perhaps like no writer so much as Hemingway, Gibson writes in hard, concrete, specific terms that make you see, hear, taste, smell and even touch the world his protagonists make their way through.

Virtual Light isn't the best, or most ambitious, Gibson novel, but it is still very, very good.